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Working
Neglect
by
Mary Vivenzi
In
this country, more people have died before their time, due to
Company neglect, than all the soldiers who have died, before there
time, in all the wars in the United States history! The job site
is a horrific war zone. --- RS
Work
is Dangerous to Our Health
In this country's occupational environmental, destruction,
pestilence, and death are factored into production the same as
casualties of war are factored into military battles.
Industrial speed up, longer working hours, and old faulty
equipment, due to company neglect, result into fatal accidents.
But occupational environment, the workplaces, have become
"killing fields." In addition to millions broken limbs
and deaths from falls etc., in the United States alone, at
least 400,000 workers get occupational diseases (cancer, etc.) and
at least 60,000 workers die each year from these diseases.
In fact, some estimates are higher!
Blue-collar workers and agricultural workers all have higher rates
of cancer and other diseases because they receive higher doses of
the toxic chemicals at the workplace than the rest of the
population. Eventually, these toxins spread to the entire working
class as they become part of the environment. Scientific
technology exists to prevent the high rate of occupational
diseases, but the drive for profits and capitalist competition
prevent the implementation of preventive action and proper safety
precautions.
In this country, more people have died before their time, due to
Company neglect, than all the soldiers who have died, before their
time, in all the wars in the United States history! The job site
is a horrific war zone.
Today's global market economy is exacting a heavy toll. Working
families are paying the highest price. In the 1990's, when Dr.
Peter Infante of the head of Standards of the U.S.
Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA), he observed that Blue-collar workers are suffering the
greatest cancer risk and are being treated like test subjects for
the effects of industrial chemicals. He called blue-collar workers
the canaries of our society. Just as dying canaries warned miners
of the first sign of toxic gas below, workers help warn us of
carcinogens and other toxins in our communities environment. But
blue-collar workers are joined by the likes of office workers,
cosmetologists and pharmaceutical workers to name a few, who are
also suffering the effects of hazardous exposures. The government
and the employers have ignored his warning.
As
Infante suggests and our collective experiences tell us things are
out of balance as well. Weather patterns are increasingly erratic
and extreme. Ecosystems are threatened. Entire plant and wildlife
species are disappearing at an alarming rate. Further,
the weight of evidence demonstrates we are the most poisoned
of
generations. The toxic burden in our bodies has reached unacceptable
levels.
Sandra Steingraber in her book
Living Downstream tells us for instance, in a 1976 sampling of breast
milk in American women one of every four samples contained polychlorinated
biphenyl's (PCBs) at concentrations above the legal limit and which if
sold for commercial use would be pulled from the shelves.
Those who live in proximity to industry, hazardous waste sites and
radiation producers military and civilian are also contracting cancer at
rates far exceeding the general population. In workplaces we are
witnessing a deterioration of occupational health and safety laws
and environmental laws.
At the same time as the laws are being weakened , cancer researchers
estimate occupational exposures account for 20 to 40 per cent of all
cancers, while the World Health Organization attributes 70 to 90 per cent
of cancers to environmental causes. In 1930 one in 10 died from cancer.
Today it is closer to one in three.
But cancer is not a disease of old age. It is the leading cause of death
for men aged 45 to 65 and women aged 35 to 69. Childhood cancer has also
increased by 30 per cent since the 1950's. More health experts predict
that the incidence of new cancer cases will increase 70 per cent by 2010.
So cancer isn't just a worker issue, it is a major public health
scandal.
We need not give into despair though. Ours is also a story of hope.
Trade union health and safety activists should form new alliances with
environmentalists, indigenous peoples, educators, enlightened
entrepreneurs, governments, faith communities and many others in our
communities as a whole. We are determined to reclaim our children's
birthright. We envision hazard-free workplaces that eliminate worker
injury, illness and death, and in the doing promote the health of workers,
their families, fellow citizens and the earth which sustains us all. This
is our hope for the world. It will be attained when we recognize the peril
we face, the power we hold and the lifelong necessity of working together
for our vision. To this end, we are promoting "green jobs" jobs
that result in healthier working and living environments for all.
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